Violet Blue, a blogger known for her expertise in the realm of sex education discovered today that all of her posts with the exception of one had been deleted from BoingBoing, a big name blog. Violet has no idea why her posts were removed and neither does anyone else, considering BoingBoing has published controversial content before. Some are speculating that the deletion was caused by a software upgrade. So far, BoingBoing has not commented on the allegations.
Why do I bring this up? Because for those of us trying to make it to the top of the (mobosphere) as an author, an event like this can be crushing in terms of the future career of a blogger. Since BoingBoing is one of those top tier blogs, being removed from their system virtually takes away the opportunity to put them on a resume. Also, think of the nice Google juice and the expanded audience that disappears along with the content.
If what happened to Violet was a mistake, I really hope BoingBoing takes the proper actions of restoring her content. If it’s not an accident, then I hope Violet receives a clear and concise reason as to why they decided to delete her off of the blog.
Now it’s question time. Would you ever delete an author from your blog? For instance, Performancing has gone through a ton of authors over the years, with all of their content pretty much in tact. Does what happened to Violet over at BoingBoing worry you as a blog author, trying to make a living?
5 thoughts on “Violet Blue Is Now A 404”
ALWAYS KEEP LOCAL COPIES OF ALL WRITTEN CONTENT.
You should also figure out who owns the content which you create. Figure out what would happen once you leave the blog/company. Discuss this with the blog owner before you left.
If they removed them, and you had local copies, would you be allowed to re-post them elsewhere? Things like this are important for those of you who want to make a name for yourself.
Ever since I left Mashable, my content is still on the site, but at first, my author page was not working correctly. I ensured that I got it working before I continued to post. It is a great source of information for future employers.
Just some food for thought.
Damn….If it was on purpose they should have at the very least give her notice so she could possibly find a different home for all the posts :O
Seeing as how they are deleting comments about her disappearance, it is unlikely a mistake.
Relying on some big-name web site for your paycheck is both convenient and dangerous. For example, I can imagine someone getting 90% of their income from Google search results; by being dropped off the Google’s index such a business is effectively rendered bankrupt.
There’s got to be another way around this, maybe a secondary blog with all the content or something…
I really don’t see how anyone can make a living as a blogger but apparently some do. Just don’t forget you are still at the hands of technology and technology breaks sometimes. I guess backing up the old hard drive isn’t all we have to worry about any more….
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